Digital publisher Vook receives $2.5 million in new seed funding

 

Earlier today Vook, the popular digital book publisher, secured new seed funding in the amount of $2.5 million from an impressive financing syndicate that includes investors from both New York and Silicon Valley.  The group includes Ron Conway, Kenneth Lerer who is the chairman of the Huffington Post, Maples Investments, Baseline Ventures and Founder Collective. 

According to their press release the company plans to use the funding to accelerate growth in all areas of its business and to support its plans for massive scale in 2010.

As we reported earlier this month in Techvibes, Vook is reinventing traditional book publishing.  The company combines a book in digital format with video, text, images and social streams into a single, integrated experience.

Ron Conway, who is both an advisor and investor in the company had the following to say:

Vook has an opportunity to become synonymous with a new form of media, which is something that doesn’t happen very often. Brad knows how to turn a big vision into a great business and it’s clear with Vook that he has an opportunity to shake things up in the world of publishing.

Is Vook poised to benefit in this marketplace at this time?  Brad Inman, who is the founder and CEO of Vook believes it is:

Three trends are driving our business.  First, traditional book publishing is going through a radical transformation just as music, film and print news have in recent years. Second, consumers are engaging with media in all sorts of new ways. And third, new devices such as smart phones and tablets are creating a huge surge in creativity and possibilities for mixed media brought together in a single form to tell a story, entertain or show us how to do something. We believe we’re bringing Vook to market at the exact right time to help transform an industry, drive creativity and create a whole new media experience for consumers.